hello i'm a new puma owner

[dollydreamer]

hi there to all, i've just bought a silver puma 2001 64k on the clock. i like it a lot, she is called flo - short for florence lol.

i found your site as i was looking for help with the engine warning lite that comes on when i switch the ignition on its to the left of the dash with the abs and another one, they go off and this one stays on until i start the engine and then it goes off. when i first got the car, this lite didn't come on but since then i've just had a new water pump and a cambelt. i found the forum member beko1987 who said that this happened on his car.

any how, my car is running well, but she needs a bit of tlc, so i'm having a service next week and then new brake discs and pads in 2 months before the winter and two new tyres after about a couple of thousand more miles. my mechanic has given her a thorough good check over and she appears to be ok. she does have a problem with the central locking and the car alarm, cause i can only lock and unlock from passenger door, but this is not a problem but i will get round to fixing it soon but i will probably ask my mechanic to have a look but if he doesn't know what to do, then i shall take it to a ford repairer.

well thats about it for the moment, i'm very much a novice where cars are concerned but hey, we all gotta start somewhere.
regards

 

[dollydreamer]

hi sorry i forgot to say i'm in derbyshire and its a 1.6

 

[LOONEY]

welcome bro and seeing that you live in darby theres a sheffield meet coming up :thumbs:

 

[dollydreamer]

sorry bro, its sis and yes do get to sheffield from time to time.
need a parcel shelf but wondering after reading one thread on here if its worth it, or perhaps someone has got one i can buy, i was also wondering if its very strong, cause i have a medium yorkshire terrier who would want to sit on it and i'm thinking perhaps it isn't strong enough for that.
anyhow, whats this about sheffield

 

[dollydreamer]

oh by the way, i'm 51 - just seen others have posted their age so thought i would as well.

 

[LOONEY]

well sis :wink: im in need of a shelf myself seem kinda hard to find

 

[bikermice4343]

Welcome I'm new too , and live in nottingham .
You will find out the people on here are great and will offer some great advice .
.

 

[dollydreamer]

hello - yep, it sounds good, but i am worried because i keep reading about all the problems people keep having and i'm like thinking omg it seems there is a lot that can go wrong with them - panic panic

 

[bikermice4343]

I had the same fear , but after reading some of other peoples posts its not so bad as long as your aware of the things that do go wrong .most are easy fix things . im sure you will enjoy driving your cat . i do and i only brought it to teach the wife to drive in , now i drive all the time and forget why i brought it

 

[quest63]

Welcome aboard :thumbs: IMO the parcel shelf wont support a dog, and in any case would block an already pretty small window,also dogs need to be secured.

Good luck with the car :thumbs:

 

[Daftgit]

Hello and welcome! :grin:

The Puma is a reliable enough car, but please remember that even the newest ones are 10 years old now. As such, they're just like any other car of that age - they're going to need work doing on them (cam belts, brakes etc).

The main weakness seems to be the rear wheel arches - they rust and cause the paint to bubble. The only cure is to cut out the rot and replace with fresh metal! The other main weakness is the rocker cover gasket. A lot of members, including me have had problems with reoccurring leaks.

If you look at this forum and see all the problems members are reporting, you'd think that the Puma was the most unreliable car ever made! But that's the beauty about forums like this, everyone shares their experiences to the benefit of the other members - especially handy when the Puma wasn't made in large enough numbers for anyone to produce a maintainence manual for them!

Good luck and happy ownership!

k: k: k: k: k:

 

[Sparx]

Welcome to ProjP k:

Parcel shelves are a pain but easy to fix when they keep falling down.. however as Quest has already stated, it wont be strong enough to hold a dog and will restrict your view also.

There's plenty of knowledge and advice on this forum so feel free to ask any questions and stick around.

 

[madhillbilly17]

hi and welcome, im sure a law come in a while ago that dogs need to be in a seatbelt harness :?: if its when your stationery i dont think it would hold for long either,could always make one out of mdf and strengthen the brackets.

 

[dollydreamer]

:lol: hi to all
yep you are absolutely right about restricting the view if i had a shelf and a dog in there, so thats out of the question now.
i've not heard about dogs being restricted, anyhow, he is only a smallish dog and we don't go far about 5 miles and we are in the countryside, :roll:
so i think i'm gonna forgo the parcel shelf for now.
what is the rocker cover gasket pls ? my engine looks very clean and i've not seen any oil leaks. is it like a head gasket ?
:?:

 

[LOONEY]

was it a nodding dog?

 

[Anonymous]

Rocker cover gasket...

If you take off the plastic engine cover, the part which the cover bolts on to is the rocker cover.
The rocker cover gasket is between that and the engine 'head' and between the engine head and the engine block is the head gasket.

This is under the plastic engine cover:

As you can see, I had a leaking rocker cover gasket. Oil will also seep down the back of the engine too.

 

[quest63]

hi and welcome, im sure a law come in a while ago that dogs need to be in a seatbelt harness :?: if its when your stationery i dont think it would hold for long either,could always make one out of mdf and strengthen the brackets.

I dont know if it is law but it should be,I think the highway code sect 57 says dogs should be secured or some such, probably not, must be secured

 

[dollydreamer]

ok thanks for that, i will tell my mechanic if i've got a leak what it is. i don't think i've got a leak yet.
but it runs ok. for the price i paid, i'm very happy with the drive and style

 

[lrrhood]

Hi and welcome, fairly new to the site myself but had tons of great help, you don't need to be a mechanic to be on here, but I have found that getting advice from here then going to a garage with some basic info gets you a lot more respect and a better deal. The people on here will also tell you straight and point you to a how to guide if they think a job is so easy you can do it yourself! I have just fitted a new heater control valve to my car and never done more than change a tyre before! Saved me a fortune and huge sense of achievment :-D
Have fun driving flo and if you come to the Shefield meet look forward to seeing you there

 

[dollydreamer]

hi all,
yep i would like to get to the sheffield meet, but am not familiar with sheffield, just know eccleshall road thats all

how do i upload photos pls ?